


Defrocked

by meridian_rose (meridianrose)



Category: V (2009)
Genre: Community: hc_bingo, Gen, Loss of Job, Roommates, odd couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 03:59:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5402222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianrose/pseuds/meridian_rose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack gets laicised; Hobbes makes him an offer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defrocked

"Shouldn't you be polishing the altar candles or something?" Hobbs teased. He was sitting at his usual desk and glanced over his shoulder as Jack came down the stairs to the basement.

Jack gave a sad smile. "Not any longer." He sighed. Once he spoke the words it would become somehow more real.

Hobbes, picking up on Jack's mood, put down the circuit board he'd been working on. Jack didn't know, and probably didn't want to know, what the circuit board belonged to. "What's wrong?"

"I've been laicised," Jack said, adding in case Hobbs wasn't certain of the meaning, "Let go, as it were. Fired from the Church."

"Defrocked?" Hobbes asked, a hint of amusement in his tone.

Jack sighed. "If you prefer." He wasn't in the mood to argue.

Hobbes was immediately contrite. "Sorry." He got to his feet. "Honestly? They threw you out?"

Jack nodded, swallowed back the knot of emotion in his throat. "I've become a liability, speaking out against the Visitors."

Hobbes shook his head, scowling. "You give them your whole life and they turn on you."

Jack wondered if Hobbes only meant the Church or if he was thinking of his past in the armed forces.

"What are you going to do?" Hobbes asked. "Can you appeal?"

"No." Jack didn't have the stomach for a fight he would surely lose even if it had seemed like an option. "It doesn't matter. I still have my faith, even if I'm no longer clergy, and I'm not going to stop fighting the Visitors while there is breath in my body. I've been defrocked, as you put it, because I am a visible sign of resistance. I will continue to be that public figure and now I will do so unfettered by the church leaders' orders!"

Hobbes nodded with enthusiasm. "Best sermon I ever heard! That's the spirit, padre." He grimaced. "You know what, I'm not going to stop you calling that. It's too good a nickname and it's not right you were kicked out when you are the one telling the truth. You'll always be padre to me."

"Thank you." Jack was oddly touched.

"What about somewhere to live?"

Jack rubbed a hand across his face. "There are a few people I can call that might let me stay for a while."

Hobbes scoffed. "Stay here," he said.

"What?"

"There's a spare cot." Hobbes gestured. " _Mi casa es su casa_. Just until you get things figured out. You'll need to look for a job with flexible hours to allow for Fifth Column activities, and to find a decent place to live that we can do our best to Visitor-proof. It'll take time to sort out. This would be the easiest option."

Jack considered the offer. "Thank you," he said. There was no time like the present. "I'll go and pack my things. It won't take too long."

"All right, then. House warming celebration later, padre?"

"Yes," Jack said, "I'll buy a quiche."

Hobbes laughed as Jack headed back upstairs but Jack truly was making a mental note to bring a decent bottle of Scotch and some snack food back with him, to prove he would be a good roommate.

He appreciated Hobbes's offer and while he was still struggling to sort through his emotions, that his immediate living arrangements were no longer a concern was a huge relief.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been so long since I wrote in this fandom. I hated the direction the series took and how it ended before things could be fixed, and I'm sad the fandom died out so rapidly rather than write fix-it fic. I've never fully let go of it though, so here I am!  
> I actually planned to write this fic for the "loss of job/income" prompt every time it came up but the square never fell within the bingo line I finally decided to complete, until now. During the fandom's brief heyday there were some rather lovely fics written about this exact scenario because it made the most sense; canon itself didn't concern itself with a defrocked Jack's living arrangements, sadly, and lost out on a nice "odd couple" dynamic that could have been further explored. So this is my belated contribution to the Jack&/Hobbes shack up together fanon :)


End file.
